MOBILE, Alabama – Defense attorney Steve Giardini, who once prosecuted child-abuse cases as a member of the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office, will be allowed to represent the man the task force he chaired twice investigated. His client, 40-year-old David Diamond, is currently accused of strangling his teenage son, Raistlin Diamond – the same person he was accused of abusing in 2002 and 2008, when Giardini was a prosecutor.

On Wednesday, Sept. 4, District Court Judge George Hardesty denied a motion by prosecutors to have Giardini removed as Diamond’s attorney, citing the defendant’s Sixth Amendment constitutional right to hire the counsel of his choosing.

Hardesty called the arguments of Giardini and Assistant District Attorney Timothy Douthit “good and compelling and obviously well thought out,” but ultimately decided the case should move forward to a preliminary hearing with Giardini in place as defense attorney.

The hearing date was set as Wednesday, Oct. 2.

“The rules of professional conduct, which all lawyers should adhere to . . . are very important, but I do not believe they extend to cover this situation,” Hardesty said. He also disclosed that he also prosecuted child abuse cases while with the District Attorney's Office, from July 1996 to February 2000, several years before Giardini took a similar role.

Douthit had argued that, although the strangulation charge did not even exist in the state criminal code until Sept. 2011, the previous allegations against Diamond were in the same realm of physical abuse as to constitute a conflict of interest for Giardini.

“The underlying act would have still been a crime,” Douthit argued.

View full sizeThis photograph shows the shed where 16-year-old Raistlin Diamond said he spends his time, after being locked out of his home by his parents each day. (Courtesy Mobile County Sheriff's Office)

In her initial filing, Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said Giardini chaired the multi-disciplinary Case Review Team that investigated child abuse accusations against Diamond in 2002 and 2008. The team on both occasions decided there was not enough evidence to charge him, it said.

Giardini argued that he does not remember the previous cases involving Diamond, and that the current charge is a “separate and distinct matter.”

“I would challenge the state to show how these facts are similar,” he said.

Hardesty’s decision to allow Giardini to represent Diamond is only the most recent blow handed to prosecutors before a preliminary hearing could convene. In late July, officials with the Department of Human Resources placed 16-year-old Raistlin back in his Grand Bay home, where prosecutors allege he was abused.

Diamond faces two to 20 years in prison if convicted of the domestic violence charges against him. Mobile County sheriff’s deputies arrested Diamond in June after investigating child abuse accusations. According to law enforcement authorities, Raistlin had been found on June 1 at a nearby convenience store and told deputies he was running away from home because his father had choked him.